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Dune Rats @ Amplifier Bar, June 13, 2014

Dune Rats Pic by Daniel Craig
Dune Rats Pic by Daniel Craig

Doctopus/Gunns

Amplifier Bar

Friday, June 13, 2014

Amplifier Bar was throbbing in anticipation of a party with Dune Rats, who kicked off their national tour in Perth following the release of their debut album on the 1st of Dune (heh, heh). Coming fresh off a trailblazing adventure across South Africa, Europe and Asia, the wild and generally awesome trio from Melbourne brought a ridiculous energy to the stage, which drew a wicked audience that were ready to bounce.

Perth’s own architects of euphoria, Gunns, swept onto the stage to open the night. Beautiful and almost melancholic waves of washed-out guitars and fuzzy bass were served up to the restless crowd, who seemed to find temporary peace in these thoughtful sounds. There was honestly a very different sensation in the building for this event, an underlying buzz as if the full moon was slowly pulling the audience skywards.

At risk of leaving the thronging masses starved of vibrations, Doctopus readied themselves and unleashed their creations. Sometimes words fail, and the only ones that seem to get close to describing these boys are sick and raw. The guitars and vocals rang out with a real honesty, bending and meandering with an almost psychedelic edge. The crowd moved up and down in glorious sync.

Dune Rats, though. If they didn’t exist, we would have to invent them. Shining like the gods of a new generation of lovers and party people, their wild eyes and face-splitting smiles were like some wonderful drug to the loose units of Perth. The tour banner which hung behind them, crested with leaves of the sacred hemp plant, seemed to sum up just what this night was about – ‘DUNE RATS C****!’

They opened their set with the outrageously fun, uprock tune Dalai Lama Big Banana Marijuana, which sounded like a religion you can really get into. Within seconds the crowd was surging around the stage. Crowd surfing became an epidemic and the sand-dwelling rodents seemed more than happy to share the stage with their equally mad fans. As could probably be expected, their notorious party anthem Red Light, Green Light had people swaying and bouncing, becoming one with the music. More than a few people would have walked out of Amplifier with a new bro crush after such an enlightened yet lighthearted experience with these rascals.

Dune Rats are right now. They are love and they are mania. They are sex and they are gardening. They love boobs, but they also love freedom. It’s not often that you get to witness a group that so perfectly encapsulate a time, place and a mind-state, but Dune Rats are prophets of the modern day spreading perhaps the most important message in a growingly insane world: let go, have fun.

JAMES HANLON

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